The Midnight Caller
by ManonmarZ1
Summary: AU, Prewar, and a whole lot of fluff. Janet and Travis have a little date.


10:30 PM

The 34th floor of the downtown apartment complex in Lower Lexington has a great view of the skyline. With neon lights, cars beeping, the faint cloud of smog surrounding the city, and the inhabitants of the city going throughout the end of their day trying to make it back home. From the outsider looking in, it may seem like an overload of the senses, but for the insiders they are right at home.

And with someone like Janet; however, she is perfectly at home.

In her small sized loft overlooking the city. The loft is barely big enough for two people to live in, but for her it is just the right size. She stared out the glass window smoking a cigarette. As the poison hit her cherry-red lips she thought,

 _He's not coming is he._

Janet was expecting someone. Not someone of any importance. Well not important to the rest of the world, but her this person was. This was someone that she met during the day, hit off with conversation, and asked him if he wanted to come over to her place. He agreed of course, but never showed up.

She is mostly an all-around average sized woman. A red dress that she got tailored for this date, has a piece of ash fall down from the cigarette to the tie. She has a bob cut that has been dyed blonde to complement the dress, and to top it all off, there is an emerald necklace with the emerald enveloped by a circle of diamonds, an heirloom that has been passed down from generations.

Holding the cigarette in her mouth for a second longer she takes a long drag. One of her many vices, cigarettes. Ever since the age of 16 in a dare by so called friends to smoke one found on the ground she has been hooked since. Sometimes she would be able to quit, but then get right back into the cycle.

She got up from her red chair, still holding the cigarette and walks over to her desk. The desk has a Robco computer with an ashtray next to it, various crumbled pieces of paper litter the side of the terminal. The granite surface has small indents of a fist being slammed in rage, obviously from hard work and countless sleepless nights.

On the table in front of here, there are two wine glasses ready for the night. They shine, reflecting the moonlight on the glass table, and on a counter near it, there are two drinks, Nuka Cola and Vim.

Janet drops the cigarette in the ashtray and stares at the blinking cursor on the screen. The green light going off and on again, waiting for her to type something, anything, anything that would make the screen have some sort of value to it. After she stares at it for two minutes, she started to type.

 _July 15th, 2047_

 _It's been three weeks since I got job at the Lexington Bank. Great pay and really good benefits, and also the easiest job in the world. I just sit there, type a couple of numbers, and bam done! And after 7 hours of doing that, I'm finished. Head on home and smoke a cigarette and wait for the dawn to come. Same thing, day in and day out._

Janet got up from her terminal and stares out the window again. She holds her elbow with her left hand, just waiting for something, if anything to happen. She is focusing on a bright neon sign that says, "Come down to Super Duper Mart, we have all your grocery needs!". Chuckling to herself, she looks out at the skyline, and then suddenly.

A knock on the door.

Startled from the noise, she turns around and faces the door, all the while controlling her heart rate. When she starts to walk towards it, the person out in the hall knocks on the door again.

"Coming!" she yells at the stranger. Almost sprinting to the door, she trips over a shoe and falls on her face. The voice from the outside says,

"Are you alright?"

She gets up and brushes herself off, "Yeah, I'm fine, just tripped that's all."  
"Okay, be more careful."  
She walks more slowly to the door and tells him, "Tell me something I don't know."

She finally reaches the door handle, and starts to slowly open it, expecting room service, but to her surprise the person standing at the door is-

The man who she had spoke to her earlier, he actually showed up.

"Travis, is that you?"

The man is wearing a clean black suit, with a red tie, his hair is slicked back jet black hair. He has on a watch, and a black bracelet on the other arm. His hazel eyes shine with a bit confidence as he says while looking her up and down,

He whistles, "Wow, you looking amazing."

"Thank you," she looks at him closely and says, "Hey it is you, I thought you weren't gonna make it?"

"I thought that too, until I found someone to watch my dog for the night," he looks past her and saw the wine glasses on the table, "are those for the two of us?"

"Uh, yeah they are, didn't want to be unprepared or anything."

"Good, that's actually great," he looks her in the eyes and says, "How about we talk for a bit on by the table."

"Sure, come in."

11:15 PM

Janet, leading them both to one of the room she said, "This is the main living area, with a couple of white couches as you can, and a table in the center, and with the added touch of a window with a view of the beautiful skyline."

"Are you giving me a tour of your loft?"  
"Am I?"

"That's what it seems like," he points to the table with the wine glasses, "Why don't we sit on the couch."  
"Sure."

They sit down on opposite sides of each other, each with a couch to themselves. Janet picked up the two bottles and said,

"Nuka-Cola or Vim."

"Nuka- Cola," as she started to pour the glass he said, "Why would anyone even have Vim?"

As she pours she said, "Cause maybe some of us aren't loyal to just one brand, different strokes," she finishes pouring the liquid in the glass and hands it to him, "for different folks."

He took it from her and said, "Thank you, for the drink and the explanation." He chuckled a bit and started to drink.

She laughed too, she poured herself some Vim and walked the two bottles over to the counter. While she was walking, Travis stared at her ass the entire time.

She sits back down and starts to drink. The taste of flat soda touches her tastebuds. Preferring that she would have at least shook it up first, she just chugs the rest. She looks over at Travis and notices that he is swirling the rest of drink in his glass and smacking his lips, almost as if he was trying to separate the mixture in his mouth.

She shakes her head and says, "You do realize it's not wine."

"I do, it's that this makes me feel so sophisticated and classy, you know, like I own thirty tigers or something."

"But you drinking a soda from the vending machine," she points at the bottle, "that's just a fancy bottle I bought from the mart, same taste, just different packaging."

"Well," he finishes the drink and stares at the cup, "What about these glasses?"

"That's the cheapest glass I could find, don't squeeze to hard or,"

The glass breaks in his hand.

"That's what happens."

He looks down at his hand and notices that a piece of glass is stuck in his hand, and while taking he yells,

"Fuck that hurt!"

"I bet it did," she goes over to her desk and grabs a bandage, "Here your gonna need this."

He takes it from her and says, "Thank you, Janet, oh do you want to hear what they call me?"  
"What do they call you?"  
"The Midnight Caller." he leans back on the couch

"The Midnight Caller," Janet leans in, "and why do they call you that?"

"Cause I can get any girl to fall for me under midnight."  
Janet lets out a full belly laugh, "Are you serious! You have to be joking, there's no way someone could seduce someone in single night."  
"Believe that all you want, who knows, maybe it will happen."  
"Sure it will, and I'm the mayor."  
"I'm guessing you think it's bullshit."  
"100%," she stands up and says, "I got something else to show you."

He raises his eyebrow and says with a smile, "Ohh, I wonder what that could b-"

"Whatever you're thinking it's not that." She gets and motions him to another room, "Here let me show you. I think you'll like it."  
"I hope."

11:45 PM

Janet opens up the door slowly and Travis is amazed by the sight he sees. The room is small, but on one side is a medium sized stereo system, and to the other side of the room is filled with various records. Travis starts to scour through them.

He picks up one, "Is this Skeeter Davis?", puts that one down slowly and looks at another one, "Roy Brown?", he shows her the "Good Rocking Tonight" single LP, "This can't be real!". He has the biggest smile on his face. Janet smiles back at him and says,

"Do you want to hear it?"  
"Are you kidding," he's like a kid in a candy store, "Yes, I do!"

She walks over to him and tells him, "Well you gotta give me the record so I can play it."

He hands it over to her, "Here."  
"Thanks."

She walks over to the record player and puts it down on the table. She carefully picks up the needle on and drops it slowly onto the record. Nothing happens, then Janet says while holding a finger up.

"Wait for it."

When she lets her finger fall back into place the song starts. The voice of Roy Brown fills the entire loft, almost shaking the floor they are standing on. Taken aback by the noise, Travis tries and collect himself, and then he starts dancing. He starts to snap his fingers and move his legs side to side. After a couple of minutes of dancing alone, Janet walks up to him and puts one hand on her waist and grabs the other, laughing Travis says,

"Well that was forward."

"Had to do this before the song was over."  
"Why didn't you do this a couple of minutes ago?"  
"A mixture of nervousness and watching you groove."  
"You were nervous?"

"A little."  
"Well, I hope you aren't now."  
"Oh, believe me I'm not."  
"That's great, I think the song is ending."

Janet listens closely until she hears Roy Brown's falsetto and replies,

"Yeah, I think you're right."  
"And it's done," he let's go and starts to walk away, but he turns around and says, "Wait!"

"What," she blinks a few times, "what is it?"  
"A parting gift?"  
"A parting g-" she doesn't have time to reply as Travis kisses her on the lips. She reels back a bit in shock, but then closes her eyes and kisses back. After about 20 seconds, they pull back and Janet says,

"That's what you meant parting gift."  
"Yeah, hope I didn't scare you or anything."  
"No, no," she blushes, "not at all."  
"Great," he claps his hands. "Now it's time for to head back home."  
"Well alright, don't let me keep you long."

They walk back into the living and stand by the door. Janet opens the door for him and he steps out, but stands by the door frame and says,

"Great night, wasn't it."  
"Yeah, it sure was."

"Same time next week."  
"You can count on that Travis.

"Anyway, I'm gonna go now, and check the time, while you're at it." he starts to walk away.  
"Wait, what, what for?"  
"You'll find out!" he yells down the hall as he heads to the elevator.

Janet hears the ding of the elevator and closes the door. She walks past the coffee table, sits down at her computer and checks the time.

 _11:59 AM_

Janet leans back in her chair and thinks to herself by heading to bed.

 _That slick son of a bitch. He was right._


End file.
